Relegator-Class Battle Cruiser
Relegator Class Battle Cruisers were the largest warships in the Gauss Dominion AstroNavy, at around 36 kilometers long, the sight of one of these overwhelmingly powerful and massive dreadnoughts was enough to make most enemy forces flee or surrender a battle just from having one be present. Designed to act as flagships for large fleets, Relegators would almost never been seen alone, typically traveling with a fleet of dozens of Transgressor Class ships. However their ability to carry with them into battle a supporting fleet of 4,000 Saggitate gunships packed 10-deep in the honeycomb hangar bays along the ships's hangar decks, along with 50,000 strike craft and numerous landing barges, the ship could effectively work as a fleet in and of itself. Battle Philosophy Because of their massive size, Relegators had to be built to take ludicrous amounts damage and continue functioning, as with their target profile and slow acceleration avoiding enemy fire was often not a possibility. They featured a sloped design meant to increase the effective thickness of armor and probability that a shot might ricochet off the ship entirely when facing an enemy fleet head on. The ship had an extremely thick hull, over 50 meters of ablative armor was stacked up in places coupled with countless interior bulkheads that could be sealed off in the event of hull breaches. Smaller weapon systems were hidden beneath armored blisters scattered about the ships' hull which could in seconds unfurl or conceal arrays of point defense beam projectors and anti-fighter or missile-intercept missiles. The ships shielding supplemented its damage absorption potential slowing down incoming projectiles moreso than most displacement shields and being able to absorb the fire of entire fleets in terms of energy weapons, and hard light shields could be used to defend against large singular projectiles that threatened to do major damage. The ships' secondary weapons came by way of numerous accelerator guns of various sizes. These were typically used to create walls of fire that would fly at an enemy from extreme ranges, spaced to be smaller than their target's profile that would restrict them from being able to dodge as the array of shots would be directed at them. The Fearsome K-A type batteries could blow straight through even the strangest battlecruisers in a single shot. The ship also had numerous detachable missile magazines. Much larger than the ones present on smaller classes of ship and hexagonal in shape, these would hold 156 missiles each. However the ship's primary firepower came from the spinal protophoton cannon. Capacitor banks, Projector arrays and beam combiners ran up the length of the ship projecting an ultra powerful beam or protophotons which could easily boil through and overload a cycling shield. The laser would save all of its energy for a single pulse, lasting only a fraction of a second before firing. Interior Being designed to fill the role of battleship, a huge percentage of the Relegator's interior was taken up by power generation, shielding, bulkheads and ammo storage. A fair amount of space was also turned over to internal trams and elevators which ran throughout the ship taking crew to and from their stations as well as components for repairs and munitions. The Relegator, which was unlikely to enter close natural gravity fields on its own featured Axial gravity, in that the artificial gravity was oriented towards the center axis. This saved in design and production as it meant that the singular ship could instead be four ships rotated 90 degrees, simplifying the navigation of the interior and preventing disorientation for gunnery crews. The ship was built with perfect axial symmetry meaning that every component aside from the spinal gun existed on each of the four axes. However due to the sheer mass of the ship there was still plenty of space left over for crew and cargo. Four primary trams ran up the length of the ship, near to the spinal cannon with two tracks and turnabouts near the bow and stern (along with secondary turnabouts at regular intervals) allowing trams to make continuous loops around the ship and ensure a speedy flow of traffic. Secondary elevators would rise vertically off this main transport network ascending the four cardinal axes of the ship, and ensuring that no point on the ship was far from transport. Because of this mirroring, and the tendency to use naval monikers such as "dorsal", "ventral", "port" and "starboard", however in the instance of this design, such terms lost their meaning. With each side possessing a duplicate backup command bridge, the "dorsal" side would become whichever side the highest ranking officer was commanding the ship from, with interior display-based signage changing accordingly. The interior contained the four primary sections which were further divided into dozens of subsections per each side side. Though some of these sections specialized into specific things, such as a collection of weapons batteries (easily identified by the trapezoid shapes running along the ships bow), power generation (deep inside the thickest part of the ship) or flight deck (near the hangar belts) every section had at least its own power, command center, internal defense and life support systems. These could cut themselves off and act independently of the ship as a whole or function interdependently. For instance if an enemy had released cyberwarfare AI or biological weapons into a section of the ship that section could be physically quarantined, cutting all connections with it and sealing all bulkheads, and another section would simply assume command. Likewise if sections required interdependence this could also be engaged. For instance if the ship was severely damaged, and the only functioning weapons were near the bow, yet the only functioning power generation was at the rear, the ship could route power, through any un-severed connections and damaged or inoperable sections to the front of the ship. Prestige The cost to commission and upkeep a Relegator-class vessel was extremely high with respect to the number of crew and mass of the ship, hence why these ships were exceedingly rare sights amongst the dominion navy. Due to their complex nature the ships with their numerous redundant sections, they required a large number of crew, and these crew needed to be extremely disciplined and focused at all times as to not slack off when working isolated in their subsection of the ship. As such being chosen to serve onboard one of these ships was an honor and for the lucky crews often meant a respectable increase in ones' pension. The crew, especially the high ranking officers also needed to recognize the chain of command; as should the ship be in a situation where it is heavily damaged, and it should have to switch to its second, third, or twenty-seventh auxiliary bridge, who should assume command, and what their duties are in the meantime, as auxiliary bridges helped to delegate orders down the chain of command and ensure order amongst the ships army of crew members, or serve as strategic command centers when coordinating fleets of thousands of ships. Relegator-Class ships almost always made use of an organic shipmaster AI, that being a Soft-Ci uploaded consciousness, of and only of a very experienced, disciplined and loyal naval commander or officer. The ship would often be named after them, or be named in their honor. This prestigious position classified the ships themselves as sentient beings. This consciousness could assume command of the ship if it felt the crew was unfit for duty and could provide tactical advice or help to administer orders. This prestigious position of becoming the greatest instrument of the dominion's military might was seen as just below that of being an animus pilot. Category:Ships